1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system manufacture, and more particularly to a system and method for information handling system thermal diagnostics.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems are generally built from a large variety of components and subsystems. Manufacture of information handling systems relies on appropriate integration of these various components and subsystems to function at a level deemed acceptable for an end-user environment. For example, thermal subsystems, such as the heat sinks, fans, thermal grease and other components involved in removing excess heat from an information handling system housing, generally must remove enough thermal energy to maintain components within an operating temperature range. If an information handling system thermal solution fails to remove sufficient thermal energy, a variety of detrimental impacts will usually occur. For instance, cooling fans will tend to run at high speeds for extended time periods thus generating increase operating noise, excessive cooling fan wear, increased power consumption and reduced internal battery life in the case of portable systems. As another example, automatic CPU throttling occurs with greater frequency to reduce thermal output of the CPU, and also reducing system performance. In some situations, a thermal shutdown occurs if temperatures become too extreme, resulting in data loss, user inquiries to technical support, and increased warranty and repair costs. Additionally, information handling systems that run at higher temperatures are often uncomfortable to users to handle.
In order to avoid thermal subsystem difficulties, information handling system manufacturers typically test each system for proper thermal operation before shipping the systems to customers. One technique for testing thermal subsystem operation is to run the information handling system with the cooling fans forced off until the system reaches a predefined temperature and then forcing the cooling fans on again to determine if the cooling fans cool the system to a predetermined reduced temperature within a given time period. Properly operating thermal subsystems will reach the reduced temperature in the set time while inadequate thermal subsystems will fail to reach the reduced temperature or take an excessive time period to do so. Although such testing ensures that the thermal subsystem meets minimum requirements, the time to run the test often exceeds ten minutes, more that half of the time typically used to perform overall system testing. Increased testing time for each system increases the number of testing racks needed for testing systems as well as the power consumed by system testing. Further, testing of thermal subsystems by forcing fans on and off does not mimic any actual end-user environment and thus does not represent a realistic view of thermal performance.